Today was supposed to be a half for students, but many in my class opted to continue working, me included. Well, let’s face it, I needed all the time in that class I could get. I am happy to say I was able to salvage my first precious opal with the help of my instructor, Sarah. In fact, all of my opals have been saved with her help.
I also finished by doublet and triplet. The triplet came out pretty decent with a nice dome finish and some good red flashes, but the doublet was another story entirely. It had several rough spots that gave me trouble. I was finally able to grind them down, but there wasn’t much color to the opal other than some soupy green.
With the almost finishing of my precious opal (I may need to bevel the back still, I can’t remember.), I was finished with the opals from my student kit. So, what to do. Well, I decided I would buy some rough, because unlike most of my class, I did not bring any opal rough from home. Then again, I didn’t have any opal rough to bring with me.
I began looking through several pieces of nice dark, Pink Peruvian Opal with dendritic patterns and some beautiful pieces of green Peruvian Opal. I also looked through some crystal Mexican Opal. I found several pieces from each that I liked, but other than the Green Peruvian, I haven’t quite decided which ones I want to try cutting. I also began looking through a jar of Precious Opal (opal with flashes of color). That’s when Sarah was kind enough to give me another piece of the Precious Opal to try again since my first one didn’t come out so great. She helped me through each step, and what came out was a very nice oval cab with some nice flashes of color.
At the end of this day, I was very pleased with my work, and yet, I still felt as if I had let myself down somehow by not completing an opal by myself. I know I shouldn’t feel down about not knowing how to properly cab a stone when I’ve never done so in my life, but a learning process is a learning process. And, needing to learn how to make mistakes is just as important as trying not to. So, I shall be back in class tomorrow, bright and early to try to cut an opal on my own.
